Influence On Traditional Israeli Historical Narrative and Public Opinion
Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch argues that prior to the advent of the New Historians "Israelis held to a one-sided historical narrative of the circumstances leading to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, and that any other counter-narratives were taboo." According to Hirsch the research of the New Historians and the wide ranging debate that they provoked broke that taboo and changed the way in which the Palestinian refugee problem and its causes were viewed in Israel. Hirsch states that the traditional Israeli narrative, that Arabs were responsible for the exodus of the Palestinians, held from 1948 to the late 1990's. He states that the arguments of the New Historians significantly challenged that narrative, leading to a broad debate both in academia and in the wider public discourse including journalists and columnists, politicians, public figures, and the general public.
Hirsch sees a significant change in how the Palestinian Refugee issue is viewed in Israeli society from the late 1990's, with a more complex narrative being more prevalent, that accepts instances where Israeli forces expelled Palestinians with the knowledge and authorization of the Israeli leadership. Hirsch attributes that change to research of the New Historians and the debate that their research provoked in Israeli society.
Critics of the New Historians have acknowledged this shift. Avi Beker, writing in the Jerusalem Post, states that the effect of the New Historians work on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict "cannot be exaggerated". He says the work of the New Historians is now the mainstream in academia, and that their influence was not confined to intellectual circles. To illustrate his point he cites examples from changes to Israeli school text books to the actions of Israeli political leaders and developments in the Peace Process.
Read more about this topic: New Historians
Famous quotes containing the words public opinion, influence, traditional, israeli, historical, narrative, public and/or opinion:
“The total collapse of the public opinion polls shows that this country is in good health. A country that developed an airtight system of finding out in advance what was in people’s minds would be uninhabitable.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)
“To-day ... when material prosperity and well earned ease and luxury are assured facts from a national standpoint, woman’s work and woman’s influence are needed as never before; needed to bring a heart power into this money getting, dollar-worshipping civilization; needed to bring a moral force into the utilitarian motives and interests of the time; needed to stand for God and Home and Native Land versus gain and greed and grasping selfishness.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)
“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)
“Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal bonds—we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.”
—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)
“What is the historical function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You can make as good a design out of an American turkey as a Japanese out of his native stork.”
—For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)